Thursday, September 10, 2015

Threatening to turn the media circus surrounding Kentucky court clerk
Kim Davis’ ongoing fight with federal courts over her refusal to issue
marriage licenses to same-sex couples into something akin to the Bundy
Ranch scene, Oath Keepers founder Stewart Rhodes on Wednesday announced
that he would be sending his troops to the scene in Grayson, Ky., to
protect Davis from being arrested again by federal marshals.

“We have had boots on the ground there since last week and will
continue to have a presence,” an announcement at the Oath Keepers
website said. It noted that Rhodes had “reached out personally to
Davis’s legal counsel to offer protection to Kim, to ensure that she
will not be illegally detained again. We would like to stress in the
strongest terms possible that we are doing this not because of her views
on gay marriage, but because she is an elected public servant who has
been illegally arrested and held without due process.”

Davis was arrested last week
for refusing to obey a federal court order and detained on
contempt-of-court charges. Judge David Bunning, who had ordered the
arrest, released her early this week, but required her to drop her refusal to issue same-sex marriage licenses in doing so.

The Oath Keepers are hardly the only far-right extremists who have
shown up to participate in the circus that has developed outside the
Rowan County Courthouse in the past week. Renowned white supremacist Michael Peroutka showed up
over the weekend and offered a speech in support of Davis at a rally
outside the jail where she was being held. So did Matt Heimbach, leader
of the white-nationalist Traditionalist Youth Network.

Rhodes on Wednesday broadcast a conversation
he had with his “boots on the ground” in Kentucky – notably, a
“constitutionalist” sheriff named Denny Peyman from Jackson County, KY.

Peyman told Rhodes: “I think that it’s important that our presence be
known there, because it’s not an issue of marriage, it’s not an issue
of a lot of things they are trying to make the issue. The issue is still
that a judge took an elected official, a citizen of the United States,
and detained them without cause, without paperwork, and without due
process. That is the situation.”

Rhodes noted that the Oath Keepers originally headed to Kentucky to
participate in a protest outside the home of Judge Bunning, but now were
reconfiguring their plans to head to Grayson and provide a security
detail for Davis.

Peyman sounded a threatening note in Bunning’s direction: “I think
the judge still needs to know that he’s not out of the woods just
because they let her out. He’s still going to be held accountable.”

Rhodes instructed Peyman and company to offer Davis’ team the Oath
Keepers’ protection. “Offer her – if she wants a close protection team,
we will provide it,” he said. “But regardless, people should consider
her under our protection. We’ll make sure that our people are keeping a
close eye on the situation and we’re gonna have boots on the ground and
mount a watch, regardless. We need this judge to understand that he’s
not gonna be able to just go grab this lady whenever he feels like it.”

The Oath Keepers – a “Patriot” organization fueled by conspiracy theories about an imminent federal dictatorship – played a central role in turning the Bundy Ranch standoff
with federal authorities into a near-shootout in April 2015, and have
subsequently ordered their members into various “calls to arms” in Oregon and Montana, where they brought guns to the scene of what were essentially paper disputes over mining rights.

Sara Robinson has worked as an editor or columnist for several national magazines, on beats as varied as sports, travel, and the Olympics; and has contributed to over 80 computer games for EA, Lucasfilm, Disney, and many other companies. A native of California's High Sierra, she spent 20 years in Silicon Valley before moving to Vancouver, BC in 2004. She currently is pursuing an MS in Futures Studies at the University of Houston. You can reach her at srobinson@enginesofmischief.com.